The final tally after what was now being referred to as ‘the great battle of Willowford’ by the survivors was both uplifting and depressive as hell.

  402 people were dead with a majority of these being the men who were of military age and had joined the shabby militia. Still the satyr had slaughtered women, children, animals and men alike, often stopping to feed on their victims. Seeing the burned and half consumed body of a human child had completely erased any shred of guilt Milo might have felt about wiping the satyr clan out down to the last child.

  On a positive note, the battle had left him with 203 000 spirit essence even after all the troops he had summoned. Unfortunately, a large portion of this had to be invested in the final phase of his plan to make Willowford and its people his forever.

  A week had passed since the battle and the people of Willowford helped by demon workers were still clearing burned buildings and digging graves. But for every building they cleared Milo would summon a brand-new wooden house to take its place. So far, he had summoned a little over 200 as well as the brand spanking new marble wall which now protected the town.

  Many a hybrid had wondered what he was still doing in the town, but they didn’t know about Ivy’s plan. After the battle she had assessed the town and its people and determined that they were so far into his pocket that they were on the verge of willingly converting. With his troops in place and his status as the town’s saviour he certainly could’ve pushed the issue. Instead, Ivy had decided to rebuild the town so that the people would come asking to join the faction. The first conversion had taken place the very first night and since then a steady stream had been coming each day after rumours started spreading about the long lifespan and other benefits it offered.

  By the end of the week only a handful of people remained unconverted. Rather than going after this handful of holdouts Ivy decided they’d gotten what they came for. They left a garrison of fifty hybrids and a a few hundred demon soldiers under the command of one of Haldor’s favourite commanders, a hybrid by the name of Gurd. They also left behind one half of the communication rings he’d gotten from the event so that Gurd could report any problems. The final and most satisfying thing they left behind was Rosanna.

  “You can’t leave me here in this backwater town!”

  Milo stared at her and for a moment considered activating the eyes of command ability. Rosanna must’ve guessed as much because she suddenly paled when he simply kept staring at her. With a theatrical sigh he broke the silence.

  “Turiel and Turial are dead, Laurel needs a new bodyguard, that’s you.”

  “I’m not a bodyguard!”

  Ivy decided to join the fray.

  “You’re telling me that you don’t want to be a close confidant of the most important governor in our domain?”

  Milo joined in.

  “Just think about it Rosanna, you will be the second most important person in the most important town. Whispering in her ear day in day out, just imagine what someone like you could accomplish.”

  The curvy elementalist looked thoughtful and then nodded.

  “I won’t disappoint you.”

  Ivy rolled her eyes and murmured under her breath.

  “Impossible, I’ll be happy as long as your somewhere out of the way where you can’t do any damage…”

  They rode out of the town followed by their 30-person strong escort of shadow stalkers and warriors. He’d initially protested against such a large force following him around before Haldor had pointed out that if he had been killed in a satyr ambush Willowford would’ve fallen.

  About halfway home they came across the first portion of demon workers. These workers were going ahead of the main workforce marking which trees had to be cut down. It was amazing how effective the stupid workers could be under the direct leadership of an elder demon. Milo greeted the hulking full-blooded demon with a wave and got a clawed salute of sorts in return.

  As they drew closer to the settlement the amount of demon workers grew. Already they’d not only cleared about 1/3 of the way to Willowford, but also a huge section around the settlement which would be used for farmland.

  The garrison guarding the keep clearly knew they were coming because Milo was greeted at the gate by Haldor, Lizbeth and Lily. His general had asked for permission to travel home on the second day after the battle to oversee the garrison, Milo suspected the true reason had to do with Crystal. Still, he’d happily granted the request as a general wasn’t really needed to clear burned buildings.

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  Milo dismounted and nodded at the three top ranking hybrids in the settlement.

  “Report.”

  He expected Haldor to speak for the group, instead it was Lily who replied.

  “I have finished scouting the region and I believe I have located several opportunities we might exploit.”

  That sounded promising.

  “Let’s hear it.”

  Lily shook her head.

  “Not here, you never know who might be watching.”

  With a shrug Milo lead the group into the keep and finally into the unused throne room. Once the door was sealed Lily produced a large parchment map, she had drawn herself. She spread the map on the table, and they all studied it in silence taking in every detail.

  Five settlements were marked on the map, their own, Willowford, Lordon and Ferdor. Around Lordon and Ferdor were several smaller villages which Lily had deemed of no importance.

  “Let’s go over everything one by one.”

  Lily nodded and then placed her finger on their own settlement.

  “First of all, our own settlement, it is well defended in every way, although I would recommend, we upgrade to a demonic castle as soon as we can spare the resources. My scouts have also requested that we give it a name for practical reasons.”

  All four of them looked at him clearly expecting him to already have a name picked out. They were sadly mistaken, and Milo’s brain went into overdrive as he struggled to come up with something worthy of the capital of their faction. When it became clear that nothing useful was going to come from him Ivy decided to rescue him.

  “I’ve given the matter some thought, we need a name that strikes fear into our enemies.”

  Milo groaned inwardly, certain that she was about to say something stupid, but Lizbeth, Lily and Haldor all inclined their heads in agreement.

  “This place is the ember of a firestorm which will conquer the world. An ember protected on all sides by stone. Emberstone.”

  It was hardly the awe-inspiring name he had been hoping for, but neither was it bad. He looked at the others for their reaction and they all looked satisfied with her choice.

  He nodded.

  “Emberstone it is.”

  With the name out of the way Lily continued her report by moving her finger to indicate Willowford.

  “Willowford is nearly fully converted and generates a large sum of spirit essence each day, my scouts will continue to keep watch on the area around it so we can reinforce it if it’s attacked again.”

  Nobody had anything to add so she moved her finger to a city a week’s travel north of Willowford.

  “Lordon is larger than we were led to believe, yet it was still quite easy to infiltrate due to the low number of soldiers and mages present in the city. We captured and interrogated one of their patrols and learned that the war which has drained the city’s resources and garrison is coming to an end soon. They expect their garrison back in around a month. They have also somehow learned that Willowford has rebelled, although they knew nothing about the king’s reaction to that news. I estimate that we have around two months at worst before the king can do anything about Willowford.”

  Haldor followed up on that assessment with his own.

  “Willowford has a large standing garrison and is protected by a true wall now. The forces there should be able to repel any surprise attack even if you estimate is off. But seeing as how the town is our primary source of spirit essence at the moment, I recommend we upgrade the fortifications to a demonic keep and double the garrison. The upgrades will serve to protect the significant investment we’ve made in the town.”

  Milo was a little annoyed that he would need to return to Willowford once again and yet he agreed with Haldor’s assessment. Losing the town after all the work they’d done on it would be catastrophic.

  “Consider it done.”

  Lily moved her finger to a massive city on the edge of the ocean.

  “Ferdor is also much larger than we were led to believe and far better protected. It proved impossible to infiltrate for the members of my order and so I had to check it out myself. Its defences are formidable, the walls are enchanted stone, and the guard force uses enchanted weapons and armour. They also have trained mages who are nearly of a level with our least skilled elementalists. Taking this city would be a massive undertaking, yet the rewards would certainly be proportional if it could be done.”

  Haldor asked the obvious question.

  “How large of an army would we need to take it?”

  Lily looked pointedly at the crown atop Milo’s head.

  “In theory all we need to do is breech the walls, once our champion here is inside it should all be over. To accomplish that we would need to build siege engines since few of our elementalists know spells which can breech enchanted walls. We would need a force large enough to defend said siege engines and elementalists, probably around ten thousand. Seti and Beldan will both be indispensable for such an undertaking.”

  So, it seemed the time had finally come to summon the rest of Lilith’s chosen. He’d hoped to put it off, but he had to admit that Lily was probably right. Beldan was Lilith’s most experienced general, and Seti was her most powerful spellcaster. If anyone knew spells capable of breeching a wall it would be Seti.

  Milo asked the interface to display how much spirit essence they had.

  Spirit essence available: 291 020

  Haldor shook his head as Milo read the number aloud.

  “That will barely cover a tenth of the forces we need to take Ferdor, and that does not include supplies, armour and weapons.”

  “So, we focus on strengthening our position while we wait?”

  Haldor grimaced.

  “Normally I’d say yes but I’m afraid that once we give up our momentum, we will fall behind other factions. Inaction could very well be the death of us.”

  Milo looked back down at the map and then pointed at the villages surrounding Ferdor.

  “How many humans live in each town?”

  Luckily Lily and her scouts had done a thorough job and knew exactly what he needed to know.

  “Between 2-400 in each one, the combined number is somewhere in the region of four thousand.”

  A plan was forming in his mind. Some part of him was protesting that it was not only risky but also bordered on outright evil. Still, what choice did they have, Haldor was right, they had to keep the momentum going or they would stall out and die.

  “These people are poor peasants, right?”

  Lily nodded.

  “They pay taxes to Ferdor in exchange for protection, but we didn’t pick up on any hostility between them and their protectors. The people seemed happy with their lives.”

  It wasn’t what he had hoped to hear and yet it didn’t change the equation.

  “If they’re happy with such an arrangement I suggest we relocate them and copy it. We’ve already cleared a huge section of farmland around this settlement, all we need is some farmers. Those who don’t fancy living here can go to Willowford.”

  The plan bordered dangerously on slavery, and he expected at least one of them to point that out. Instead, they were nodding along as if he had just said something very reasonable. Even Haldor only looked slightly uncomfortable, and not enough to voice a protest. Ivy practically jumped on the plan.

  “Master, how large of a force would we need to relocate these peasants?”

  Lily looked deep in thought.

  “I think they’ll fight, but if we take each village by surprise before they can warn the others, we could get it done with five hundred or so hybrids, at least a third will need to be from my own order.”

  Five hundred hybrids were a massive investment of resources. Yet the potential gain of thousands of new converted followers easily outweighed the investment.

  “Then we are decided, it will take us another week to amass the spirit essence needed for the plan. Once we’re ready I will travel to the area with an escort and summon the troops we need there.”

  They spent the rest of the week preparing for his absence. Just as Haldor had recommended, he summoned a demon keep in Willowford and doubled its garrison. Next, he summoned a demon castle in Emberstone. This added another huge wall to the defences and the modest keep grew nearly three times in size. He also doubled Emberstone’s garrison before setting off on a journey which would likely take two weeks in total if they were successful.